Always
by mabudachi-lover
Summary: Songfic to 311 or the Cure's Love Song OotP & HBP content.Remus & Tonks argue, and Remus has a chat with Andromeda & Molly.


None of the characters in Harry Potter belong to me, or I wouldn't be writing **fan fiction**. The song is "Love Song" by 311 or, originally, the Cure.

_**Whenever I'm alone with you**_

_**You make me feel like I am home again**_

Remus wandered into Grimmauld Place, beaten, tired, and wishing he had enough strength to Apparate to his home. He knew what, or rather who, was waiting for him at Number 12, and he had been avoiding her for three weeks. He staggered into the kitchen , and a horrified gasp made it known that the young Auror had been waiting.

"Remus! Oh, you look terrible…" she trailed off miserably, her dark eyes looking dangerously glassy.

"Tonks, don't …" he muttered as she walked over, wand raised, ready to heal the major wounds.

"Remus J. Lupin, I will not have you dying now, not when we have unresolved issues to work out." She said "unresolved issues" briskly as she worked his shirtsleeve over his elbow looking at the gashes with a curious expression on her face.

"Tonks…please. I've only just gotten back, I'm tired and-"

"And if I let you go now you'll avoid me until you go back with _them_, so stressed out that you'll slip up something awful and get yourself killed. There's no way I'm letting you leave in this state, Remus. You seem to manage coming back every time in an even worse condition than you did the time before." She mended the wounds carefully, moving her fingers gingerly around the scars inflicted in the years and months previously. Remus wondered how a woman like her could have ever fallen in love with him, and stayed despite everything he had said to her. She managed to make life with Sirius bearable, her sense of humor making up for the bitterness and cynicism that had destroyed his during the twelve years he spent in Azkaban.

_**Whenever I'm alone with you **_

_**You make me feel like I am whole again**_

She always said, "I don't care," but Remus knew she did. He knew she hated the thought of him leaving for weeks at a time, coming back ravaged with horrific wounds and exhaustion. She didn't care about the scars or the lycanthropy, or the fact that he was fourteen years older and poor. She just wanted _him_. Molly often scolded him when he came back for making Tonks worry, and Remus always admitted to himself that he hated seeing her sad, her lively pink hair turned to a dreary mousy brown, the same color of his minus the gray. Her normally sparkling dark eyes were dull, and the color always had a little more blue than the day before. She always made him laugh, and she was one of the few people who didn't treat him any differently because of his lycanthropy.

_**Whenever I'm alone with you**_

_**You make me feel like I am young again**_

Remus always felt younger around Tonks, despite his brown hair turning a premature gray, while hers was a vivacious, shocking pink. She always looked the same, she only ever seemed to change her hair, but Sirius clamed she had given herself her mother's looks, instead of her Aunt Bellatrix's. Meanwhile, Remus' face would change every month, each transformation adding another line or so to his pale face. Despite her ever-changing looks, she always remained _Tonks_.

_**Whenever I'm alone with you**_

_**You make me feel like I am fun again**_

He could always joke about anything around her, while with Sirius certain subjects were better left ignored and avoided. She always found ways to trip over anything and everything in sight, and he always found ways to catch her. No matter how old he looked, he felt younger than he really was, and younger than he'd ever felt. She made him feel needed, like there was a purpose to life behind the suffering.

_**However how far away**_

_**I will always love you**_

So, like she had predicted, Remus left, managing to dodge Tonks and the dreaded unresolved issues, but he wasn't stressed, just sad. He hated leaving her in that state, crying and asking Dumbledore if he had heard anything on Remus' condition. Sirius had mentioned one time seeing her curled up in the library one morning after night duty at the Ministry, books on Lycanthropy pulled off the shelves and laid everywhere- on the floor, on the table, on other chairs. "If that's not a clue Moony, then I don't know what is," he had said, casting Remus a knowing glance, a smug smirk on his face.

_**However how long I stay**_

_**I will always love you**_

Remus always worried about her worrying about him, considering Greyback attacked everyone in reach and didn't stop after moonrise. Dumbledore would later tell him after Greyback's most vicious attack so far that Tonks had left her post in Hogsmeade and gone into Hogwarts, wanting to make sure that Remus hadn't been the one attacked. She loved him dearly she was wasting away every time he tried to protect her.

_**Whatever words I say**_

_**I will always love you**_

Remus often argued with himself over Tonks- one side argued that she'd get killed over him if he let her get any closer while the other argued that trying to protect her was obviously not the right thing to do. One side hoped that when he went back to Number 12, she'd stay away and finally leave him alone after thinking carefully about what he'd said while the other argued that she'd still be there in the kitchen, waiting stubbornly for him to come in from his latest 'vacation' with a heartbroken look on her pale, shadowed face. He loved her dearly, even though his words mirrored the exact opposite, and she knew it. She was just waiting for the risky Marauder to overtake the noble gentleman and give up on the arguments before they both came to regret it.

_**I will always love you**_

"Tonks… we've had this discussion before. You might not care, but I do, and believe me, you'll care eventually."

"No I won't, Remus! I don't care at all! I never have and never will! Why do you keep insisting that I will care when we both know that I won't?"

"Because I care way too much about you to let you stay with me. What would happen if I hurt you, or worse?"

"I'm a bloody Auror, Remus! I can take care of myself. Besides, you'll be able to do more after the war, everything will be clearing up and your sick little mantra of "too old, too poor and too dangerous" will be complete rubbish. What would happen if one of us died tomorrow?"

"I'd be very sad."

"You wouldn't wonder at all if things could have been different if you had just taken a chance?"

"Yes, I would."

"Then why won't you bloody find out what could have happened before it's too late?"

"Then there'd be more of a chance that you'd get hurt. Greyback-"

"Is a bloody monster and not at all like you. Just because you're both Werewolves doesn't mean you're the same. Greyback chose to use it as a weapon, but you just take it as part of life. You're two completely different people, so stop putting yourself in the same category."

"He'd come after you."

"Good, let him come. I'm an Auror, and guess what? Kingsley is too and he lives next door. Mad-eye lives down the street. I live in a neighborhood filled with Aurors, he'd be a complete idiot to try anything."

"And if we started a relationship, they'd chuck you out of the Ministry."

"I'd still have my training though, wouldn't I?"

"I couldn't let you do that."

_**Whenever I'm alone with you**_

_**You make me feel like I am free again**_

Tonks would give up everything to be with him and all he was doing was pushing her away as much as he could. He knew she could help him, but years of estrangement of wizards had kept him frightened of people getting close. James, Sirius, and Peter hadn't even been close to Remus until they became Animagi. Now Tonks was closer to him than any of the Marauders had been and it seemed she was getting closer by the minute.

_**Whenever I'm alone with you**_

_**You make me feel like I am clean again**_

This time when he came back to Grimmauld place, Tonks was waiting for him in the entrance hall, leaning against the wall next to a concealed Mrs. Black. "We are not discussing this right now."

"Why do you have to jump to conclusions? I only came to watch for you so I could be absolutely sure that you're alive; for now at least."

"What do you mean, 'for now'?"

"I mean my parents aren't too happy and Dumbledore has finally given Mum permission to enter the Most Noble House of Black."

"Is he deliberately trying to get me murdered?"

Tonks laughed bitterly. "I have no idea. She was actually supposed to be here already. Mum is staying for a while to help Molly with the cleaning, since she knows what to throw out and such."

"I'll be leaving then."

"No you won't. I'm not going to let Mum kill you, she'll probably hug you and say something to the effect of, 'when are you two going to quit arguing and get married? I want grandchildren before I'm fifty.'"

"You've got a while to make up your mind then."

"Not really. Mum's five years older than you, making her, as _you_ would say for yourself, the grand total of forty-one."

"Another excellent point. I went to school with your mother."

"For two years, Remus," a voice shot from behind them.

"Mum!"

"Really, Remus. Must you be so stubborn? From what Molly's told me, you two are perfect for each other. Now where is Molly?"

"Upstairs, Andromeda."

"Thank you Remus. Good to see you. You too, darling."

Tonks scrunched up her face at this, and Remus laughed. She stuck her tongue out at him, and he rolled his eyes.

_**However how far away**_

_**I will always love you**_

So she went home after healing what wounds he would let her, leaving Remus alone in a house with the frustrated-with-matchmaking Mrs. Weasley and Tonks' irritated mother, who was a worse threat than Molly. _She _wanted grandchildren. Remus almost laughed out loud at the thought, but it became more appealing as time wore on.

_**However how long I stay**_

_**I will always love you**_

There were footsteps coming from the entrance hall, and the noise of women talking. As the door to the kitchen opened, Remus gripped his hot tea, waiting for the blow to fall. Instead, the two women just walked over and sat opposite him, staring at him from over the table. Remus just sat there, staring into his tea.

_**Whatever words I say**_

_**I will always love you**_

"Molly, knowing Remus, he's not going to crack unless we put a little more pressure on him."

_So they are planning to mentally torture me,_ Remus thought.

"You're being _awfully_ obstinate, Remus."

"I have to be, Andromeda. She'll see in about a moth that she was wrong and she'll want nothing to do with me."

Molly threw him a look, something between sad and reproachful. "Remus, you're taking a ridiculous line with this. She's tearing your reasons down, one by one."

"Excellent point, Molly. And, please Remus, call me Mum."

"Why?"

"Because you'll break eventually. Whether it's Dora, me, Molly, Ted or Dumbledore who does it is uncertain, but it _will_ be done and you'll have to get used to the idea, so why not start now?"

"Dumbledore?"

"Yes. He knows too. Haven't you noticed that Dora never has eye contact with him anymore?"

"Great. Then Minerva, Kingsley, and Mad-eye know too, I suppose?"

Andromeda grinned. "_Now_ you're catching on."

"Remus?"

"Yes Molly?"

"Are you pushing her away because you don't want her to get hurt, or do you just not love her and don't want to say it?"

In the corner of his eye, he could see Andromeda's smile vanish, her dark eyes narrowed dangerously and looking between Molly and Remus. He stirred his tea thoughtfully before answering.

_**I will always love you**_

"I do love her. Probably have since I met her last year and I always will."


End file.
